Former high school teacher in Chesco admits to illegal sexual contact with 16-year-old student

A former Chester County high school teacher pleaded guilty last week to engaging in unlawful sexual contact with a 16-year-old student and providing him with marijuana.

Michelle Mercogliano, 36, was a special education reading teacher at Conestoga High School in Tredyffrin Township. She agreed to a plea deal in exchange for a sentence of at least 15 months in state prison and supervised probation for a minimum of 80 months, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

Mercogliano was designated under Megan’s Law as a “tier II” sex offender, meaning she must register for 25 years.

Before her guilty plea, Mercogliano forfeited her teaching license, and she will not be allowed to work with children while on probation, the district attorney’s office said.

“Parents and students should be able to trust their teachers,” Chester County District Attorney Christopher L. de Barrena-Sarobe said in a statement when Mercogliano was arrested last year. “The defendant broke the law and destroyed that trust. It will not be tolerated.”

The investigation began when the boy’s family contacted Tredyffrin Township. His father gave police medical marijuana packaging he had found in his son’s closet, which had Mercogliano’s name on the label, the criminal complaint said.

The boy’s parents learned about the illegal sexual contact from his sister, who said she was told about it by the boy during a trip out of town, the complaint said.

The boy told police the majority of the illegal sexual contact occurred at the home of Mercogliano’s parents in Wayne, the complaint said.

Mercogliano secretly communicated with the boy through Snapchat as well as text messages, the complaint said.

She was a relatively new teacher at Conestoga, according to the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District.

A lawyer for Mercogliano could not be reached for comment Monday.